Stem Cells and Sex Wars: Challenging the Incurable

By Burton Feinerman

THE EXCITING DIVERSE LIFE OF A physician SCIENTIST WHO MERGED RESEARCH, MEDICINE,TRAVELS TO EXOTIC PLACES, FUN,SEX, HARDSHIP AND TRIUMPHS DISCOVERING NEW TREATMENTS TO CHALLENGE INCURABLE DISEASES SUCH AS ALS, ALZHEIMERS, PARKINSON, MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS,AUTISM, BRAIN DAMAGE, DIABETES, COPD, BLINDNESS, TAY-SACHS, HUNTINGTON, KIDNEY DISEASE. EXCITING ADVENTURES IN SCIENCE AND LIFE.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Aug 8, 2013
• ISBN: 9781481774765

Burton Feinerman

Burton Feinerman,M.D. graduated New York Medical College; post graduate training at Long Island College Hospital, Flower & Fifth Avenue Hospital, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. Captain and Director Medicine 98th General Hospital, U.S.Army, Germany. Practiced medicine in Florida and Hawaii past fifty five years. Past Chairman, CancerTechnologies,Inc.;President,StemCellRegenMed; Member Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, Age Management Group, International Society Cellular Therapy; American Society Stem Cell and Blood Research. Married to Tomoko Mitsui; their hearts are still in Maui, Hawaii where they first met;two sons Gregg and Steven also physicians;Feinermans live now in Florida; Dr. Feinerman devotes his life to stem cell research and gene therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, genetic conditions, therapies to overcome blindness, diabetes, kidney disease, brain damage and chronic lung diseases.

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THE STORY OF ME AND STEM CELLS

THE EARLY YEARS

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I thought where do I start? My pathway to the world of stem cells has to be traced to the time I was twelve years old.

At that time I was captain of the baseball team of Public School #92 in Brooklyn, New York and my goal was to become the shortstop of the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was during that period that I met a fellow classmate whose name was Hans Mark. He had been born in Mannheim, Germany and his father Dr. Herman Mark was a renown scientist for I.G. Farben. As the Nazis took a stronghold on Germany in the 1930s the Mark family fled to Vienna, Austria. Dr. Herman Mark again took a prestigious scientific position only to be again faced with the Nazi Anschluss takeover of Austria.

Shortly afterwards Dr. Mark was imprisoned by the Germans for six months. His liberal views and the fact that one of his grandfathers was Jewish probably were the cause of his arrest. His wife appealed to the Catholic church for assistance but to no avail. While in prison one of Dr. Mark´s jailors turned out to be a person whom he had played a lot of soccer with. This association along with lots of cash that was gathered up by his wife to bribe the jailor he managed to find freedom. In the late hours under cover of nightfall, all of the Mark family fled pretending they were on their way to Switzerland for a skiing trip. From there they made their way to London (where they lived during the Battle of Britain and the bombing of London), Canada (where Dr. Herman Mark took a position at a paper company) and eventually New York (where Dr. Herman continued his polymer research at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute).

Dr. Herman Mark got the nickname Der Geheimrat from his colleague Isador Fankuchen which literally meant privy or secret councilor, or stuffed shirt. Fankuchen meant this as a joke but somehow the name stuck but it was the antithesis of Mark, who had a self deprecating sense of humor, was unassuming in nature yet was pleased by the title. Herman Mark was hardly a Geheimrat, being European Viennese to the core, kissing lady´s hands, melded Old World with New World ways, had an openness to people, places and ideas and transformed into American ways. He would interact well with his students; had a total lack of pomposity offering warm greetings to people of all walks of life, rich, poor, educated, non-educated saying good morning to all with a big smile and calling many people Professor even when they had no such title to give the stranger some sense of importance. It was shortly after the Marks moved to New York that that I met Hans Mark who was also twelve years at the time. He introduced me to the world of science and especially organic chemistry. The Mark family lived in a very large apartment overlooking the beautiful Prospect Park of Brooklyn.

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Dr. Herman Mark (90th Birthday Reception, Plaza Hotel, N.Y.)

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Steven Feinerman, M.D., Herman Mark, Ph.D,

Dr. Burton Feinerman

A steep stairway from the apartment led to a large room above that served as our mutual chemistry laboratory. It was there that we probed into the molecular structure of organic molecules and developed a new plastic. We had isolated the protein casein from milk and then added barium sulfate that formed a solid plastic. We entered at the time our work to a competition for young people in science called the Gilbert Science Prize. Much to our amazement we won first prize and suddenly we were famous with our pictures all over the newspapers. No longer was I a baseball player but instead a future scientist.

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Burt Feinerman and Hans Mark (Gilbert Science Prize)

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Dr. Feinerman and Hans Mark, Ph.D (80th Birthday Party)

During our relaxing hours we played a war game that Hans had created. It consisted of hundreds of pieces of hard cardboard battleships, destroyers, tanks, soldiers, large islands that were placed all over the Marks family apartment to the distress of his mother. The game went for on for at least a week to the further concern of Hans´ mother. All of this rather ironic since Hans went on to become the acting head of the Neutron Physics Group for Nuclear Science at MIT; later Professor of Physics; Chairman of Nuclear Engineering and Administration of Berkeley Research Reactor; Director of NASA Ames Research Center; appointed Administrator of NASA by President Reagan; Chancellor of the University of Texas from 1984 to 1992; Secretary of the Air Force under President Carter; Executive Director of NASA; Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Texas; Director Defense Research and Engineering under President Clinton; now continues to teach aerospace engineering and a space flight course at the University of Texas. As I watched his amazing progress in awe in my later years it served as an inspiration that I had always to try harder in my endeavors and that stimulated my return to the love of research.

When we graduated grammar Public School we both decided to go to Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, New York. At that time the school was all male and one had to pass a competitive examination. We met this challenge and studied hard for the next four years with plans to go into a profession there afterwards. My father had wanted me to help him with his selling of curtains and draperies on the roads of rural Pennsylvania. I did help him during one summer and quickly decided that it could not replace my love for science.

My sister, Carol, had Down Syndrome, and was seven years younger than I. She was very lovable, always smiling and chatting. She seemed to understand what was going on around her and had some learning capabilities. My mother was very caring for her and extremely patient in making efforts to teach her many things. My father always remained devoted to her. I believe I was a good brother to her and yet frustrated that I could not make her normal. Why hasn´t medical science found the way to cure genetic disorders such as this? In those days it was simply explained that Down Syndrome occurred primarily in older women above the age of thirty eight who delivered children which is not true. I know that my experiences with Carol made me want to become a doctor and do research when I got older.

HIGH SCHOOL DAYS

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T raveling to Stuyvesant High School meant getting up at 6 AM and battling the crowds getting into the BMT subway and then being crushed inside the train by the mob. One would literally be pinned in between two or three people in a standing position. This would enable me to close my